I'll Leave My Window Open
by eyesofgarnet
Summary: You're not suppose to fall for the guy that bullies you, unless he use to be your best friend. AU. P/R M/T Samchel friendship


_Thanks to everyone that's be extremely patient about this story being rewritten. I would have had this up way sooner than now, but my Nana passed away at the end of March and it wasn't an easy thing to handle (she practically raised my brother and I).  
>I really hope everyone enjoys the new first chapter.<em>

*****Also, please do not forget that this story is AU. I posted it so late last night and I was in a rush because I needed to get to bed that it slipped from my mind to put that somewhere. And obviously if you are a little confused don't panic, you're kind of suppose to be, I'm not just going to hand over the entire plot of a multi chapter fic in the first chapter, what would be the point of writing the rest of the chapters then? Things need to be vague and they will be explained.**

**This being AU means the following: No Beth, no relationship between Puck and Quinn other than Finn being important to both of them. This takes place their Junior year of high school, and to make my head not hurt so much they're all in the same grade. A lot of Season 2 characters will appear, as well as some that we lost from Season One. Puck's sister isn't as little she appeared to be shown in episode 8 of Season 1, she's actually only two years younger than him in this (it just works better for me that way). Finn is the only one in Glee Club, leaving out Quinn, Santana, Brittany, Puck, Mike, and Matt. If I've forgotten anything, I'll make sure you guys are well aware of it before each chapter. I just don't want you all to feel to lost.**

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><p>Rachel fumbled with the books in her locker, trying not to shake as tears were threatening to fall down her face. First period hadn't even started yet and her day was already shot to hell. Normally things didn't fall apart until after she was slushied by a random jock or cheerio. Today, however, was different, she had woken up this way, shaky and upset because of a dream she had the night before. Her dreams were always filled with bright lights and Broadway songs, she had no idea how Noah Puckerman had managed to invade her dreams…again.<p>

It had been the third night this week. The first night, Monday night, was easy. He was singing to her and she remembers smiling and feeling her heart swell, which was strange. No one ever started to fall for the person that bullied them, and that bully certainly didn't sing songs to her—at least not anymore. When she woke up the following morning she brushed the whole thing off, her mind had to have been playing tricks on her. She was supposed to be dreaming of Finn, her subconscious must have made a mistake.

Two nights later he invaded her dreams for a second time. She was on stage singing, dressed from head to toe as Elphaba. Puck was in the front row, watching her and smiling at her whenever she looked down at him. Further on in her dream he had taken her out to dinner and they were dancing together. She loved the way his arms felt around her—it made her feel as if she was invincible, anything and everything was possible and nothing would ever be able to touch her. His smile mesmerized her and their laughter fusing together between them was like a long lost melody, to her it sounded beautiful. Just as he leaned down to kiss her, her alarm clock went off, waking her up. That dream had left her more confused and practically in tears every time she thought of him or glanced at the Wicked poster on the wall next to her desk.

"Rachel?" She heard Tina's voice ask from behind her. "Is everything ok? You're shaking."

Rachel slammed her locker shut after pulling out all the books she needed for her first two classes and turned to look at Tina. "I'm _fine_." She spit out, in a very un-Rachel like tone.

Before she could move past Tina, Rachel heard him, and his loud mouth, coming down the hallway. Her heart started to beat a little faster than normal; she silently cursed at herself. _God, Rachel, get a hold of yourself._

His eyes found hers through the crowd, something he would do from time to time that she never truly understood, and gave her a little smirk. It caused her heart to beat frantically again. She couldn't stop herself from staring at the way his gray shirt clung to his body, showing off his amazing arms and abs. Rachel remembered when he had neither, before he started throwing slushies in her face and calling her a freak, back when they were actually friends—best friends. Time really can change a person.

When he finally reached her, Puck pushed a few of the freshman that stood in between them away, getting as close to her as he possibly could. Snapping his gum in her, Puck yelled out, "Take a picture, Berry, it'll last longer."

"Screw you, Puckerman," She yelled out before she could even stop herself. Rachel Berry didn't talk like that, and she didn't say things that invited lewd comments from the opposite sex, but she was annoyed and confused all rolled into one.

"Keep wishing." Puck said as he continued down the hall. When he was about to turn the corner he stopped and winked at her, driving her heart into another crazy frenzy.

"What the hell was that about?" Tina asked, gesturing towards the end of the hall.

Rachel ignored her; her eyes were still focused on spot Puck had just disappeared from. After an encounter like that, which never involved her saying anything to him, she'd shake it off and walk away. Today it was different. She was different. All Rachel could see was her dreams, and her past—she missed how things use to be.

"Hello, Rachel!" Tina called out again, waving her hand in front of Rachel's face in attempt to get the girl's attention. "Snap out of it, you're starting to make me uncomfortable."

It took a few seconds but Tina finally got her to come around. Rachel could feel her face burning with embarrassment. She didn't say anything; instead she looked at Tina with nearly blank eyes. What could she say without confessing about her dreams? She wasn't sure if she was ready to do that just yet.

"Rachel, talk to me. I know something is up so you might as well get it out now before you combust." Tina said while grabbing Rachel's arm and dragging her into the nearest bathroom.

Rachel went over to the sink and splashed some cold water on her face as Tina checked all the stalls to make sure they were alone before locking the door.

"You didn't sleep with him did you?" Tina asked, dropping her bag to the floor and sitting on top of it.

Rachel, staring at her reflection in the mirror, shook her head. "Absolutely not!" She gripped the sides of the sink until her knuckles were white. The cold water she had just splashed on her face did nothing to help her come back to reality, and neither did the question she was just asked. One thing kept running through her mind…

_I haven't, but I really want too. I've imagined what it would be like._

Tina remained silent, staring at Rachel while playing with a lose piece of string at the end of her skirt. She knew Rachel was bound to crack under the pressure of silence; they'd been friends for so long that Tina knew everything and then some about Rachel Berry, including the fact that when something was bothering her, silence was the last thing she wanted to be in.

Rachel took a deep breath and continued to stare at her reflection in the mirror. She wasn't ugly, a tab bit ethnic but certainly not ugly. Her hair was always under control, her make-up flawless and natural. Yes, her nose was a bit on the bigger side, but whenever that crossed her mind she always reminded herself that Barbra Streisand's nose wasn't that small either and look at how famous she's is. She was thin, with curves in just the right places, and even though she was short, she knew her legs were her best asset. Clothing wise, however, she could use a little makeover. Her choice of clothing wasn't really her fault; her fathers' were beyond paranoid that if she wore anything remotely normal it would attract too much unwanted attention, they didn't realize that clothes like her did attract unwanted attention, just not the good kind. She'd kill to go back to the days when she wore t-shirts and jeans, so they might have been a bit too tight, but she had nothing to show off when she was twelve years old; not that she had much to show off now—at least in her opinion. Now her closet was filled with skirts and dresses, she owned a few pair of jeans but she rarely wore them.

Overhead the bell rang, signaling the beginning of first period, but neither girl budged from their place. Tina did look up to check if Rachel was slowly losing it, there was always this spark in her eye right before Rachel exploded with everything that was on her mind. It was already there, just bidding its time until Rachel was ready to crack.

"Every night when I fall asleep I dream about Broadway, Broadway and my name in lights above some of the best musicals in the world. I'm always walking around New York or London, sometimes L.A., signing autographs and people are worshipping the ground I walk on," Rachel said still staring at the mirror, though she was more focused on the reflection of Tina sitting on the floor behind her rather than her own. "Lately—lately they've all been about him. It's like he's crawled into my dreams and refuses to leave."

Tina stopped pulling at the string on her skirt and looked up at Rachel, trying to hide the smile that was growing on her face. "So you're dreaming about him? That's interesting."

"Get that look off your face." Rachel turned around, now facing Tina, and leaned against the sink for support. "Monday night he was singing to me. I couldn't make out the song but it felt familiar, almost like he's sung it to me before. All I remember when I woke up was how I missed hearing him sing, and I felt loved. Wednesday night he was watching me as Elphaba and we went out for dinner after the show. Then last night—" She stopped herself, not being able to say what had happened. Maybe if she kept her mouth shut everything would go away. If only she could get that lucky.

"Last night what?" Tina asked. She got up from the floor and moved closer towards her friend, smoothing her skirt along the way. "Did you have a sex dream about him or something?" Tina had to stop to control the giggles that were escaping from behind her lips. "_If_ you did, I hate to break it to you but you're not alone. I'm sure most of the female population of this school, including a few teachers, has had some sexual dream about him."

Rachel rolled her eyes as Tina leaned against the sink next to her. "Last night," she paused for a second, biting her bottom lip like it was going to keep her from finally repeating the dream she had last night—she knew it wouldn't work. "Last night I had a dream where he told me he loved me. And God, I _wanted_ it so much, I wanted him so much."

Rachel turned towards the mirror again, leaving the words she had just said time to sink into Tina's mind. Tina's mouth formed into a circle, trying to grasp what Rachel had just told her. A sex dream would have been one thing, but a confession of love from someone she didn't even believe was capable of any of type of true feelings anymore was hard to accept.

After a few minutes Rachel finally turned back around, her eyes were red and a single tear was slowly rolling down her face.

"Calm down." Tina said. "So you had a dream about McKinley's resident bad boy slash sex god where he told you he loved you. Dreams always mean the opposite of what they really are. This is the same guy that throws slushies in your face on a daily basis and eggs your house at least once a month. Your dream is probably just your suppressed rage towards him."

"Maybe," Rachel said, partially agreeing with Tina. The dream seemed crazier now then it had when she woke up that morning. "Maybe you're right; maybe this my way of dealing with him because he's such an idiot sometimes. I really don't know."

"Asshole, Rachel. Puck's an asshole."

Rachel shook her head and pulled at the end of her blouse, ignoring what Tina had just said. "But maybe, maybe this is my way of dealing with how he use to be and how I miss who he use to be."

"Alright," Tina said starting off slowly. "That could be the case too." Tina would never say it but she didn't even know Rachel could possibly miss him, she didn't miss Puck or who he use to be, he'd changed so much that that part of him was unrecognizable. "Well, what are you going to do about it?"

"I don't know!" Rachel yelled, throwing her hands up in the air in aggravation. "I just—I don't know."

Rachel was beyond frustrated at this point. This boy use to play in her backyard with her when they were kids. They had spent holidays and vacations together until they were twelve years old. After that when they had started going to a new school, he fell into a different crowd. That same crowd convinced him Rachel Berry was a freak because she actually aspired to be someone and had dreams of getting out of their pathetically small town; and they used the fact that she had two gay dads against her, something that didn't really fly in a mostly conservative town in the middle of Ohio.

Tina reached down and picked her bag up off the floor, still keeping her eyes on Rachel. "Well I suggest you do something about it before your head explodes. Just don't do anything stupid okay? There's only so much Kurt and I can fix."

"I'm not a child, I can handle this."

Tina shook her head as she unlocked the door and fled, leaving Rachel by herself to think about everything she'd just said. Her dreams played over and over in her mind, like a continuous movie that had no perfect ending. There was nothing she could do to stop it.

Rachel was alone for no more than a few minutes, staring at herself in the mirror again, when she saw Quinn, Santana and Brittany enter the bathroom, two of them with devilish grins, and Brittany looking just as confused as always. She reached down and grabbed her bag from the floor, trying to get out as quickly as she could before their harassment began but she had no luck; as soon as she started towards the door Quinn got right in her face and begin to pour the extra large blueberry slushie in her hand onto Rachel's face and down into her shirt.

"Opps!" Quinn said as she shook the cup till the final drop had fallen from it. "My bad, freak, didn't see you there. You're just so hard to see sometimes."

"Yeah you should really work on that, and better get that thing you call a shirt in the wash immediately, that blue stain is going to settle in fast." Santana added with a wicked laugh.

Rachel's eyes went wide and pushed her way around the three Cheerios determined not to cry in front of them.

When she finally reached her locker she realized that she had forgotten to bring an extra outfit with her that morning, her brain had been so full of Noah Puckerman that she'd forgotten the essential things she needed to survive a day in this school. She could home, but she had gotten a ride to school with Kurt that morning because her car was in the shop getting fixed. It seemed like today was just going to be one of those days where nothing would go in her favor.

Rachel turned the knob to enter her locker combination before opening her locker up, surprised to find someone had been in there in the short time she'd been in the bathroom with Tina. There was a small piece of paper on top of a white shirt and a pair of dark jeans that hadn't been there before. Rachel reached in and pulled the note out, reading it with curiosity, though she had a gut feeling who it was from already.

_Borrowed your notebook since I missed history yesterday and noticed you didn't have a change of clothes. Knowing your luck you might need these more than I will. Get them back to me whenever you can. 3 Me_

Alright so maybe things might go her way a little bit today, at least she had a change of clothes now and wouldn't have to walk around with a sticky top and smelling of blueberries for the rest of the day.

/

Later that day, Rachel found herself sitting on the bleachers eating her lunch alone—well not really eating the perfectly made sandwich she had brought with her, she was far more content on just staring at it. She had lost her appetite as she was walking towards the cafeteria when a random Cheerio had spit on her; just thinking about it made her shiver in disgust. It was part of the reason she had ventured out to the bleachers, overlooking the football field, by herself, she didn't want to be a sitting duck in the cafeteria today, and there would only be so many more times she could come out here and be alone, not having to worry about the weather.

Rachel heard someone talking down below and looked out onto the football field to see Coach Bieste pacing up and down the sidelines muttering something to herself. It was impossible to hear what she was saying because of the distance but Rachel was sure it had something to do with tonight's football game against Shawnee. Even though Rachel was a known choir geek and rarely paid attention to school sports, she knew that tonight's game was a big deal, it was hard to miss with all the posters around the school informing everyone of the _big_ game. Winning would mean everything because McKinley would be beating a school they hadn't beaten in over ten years and they would be able to continue their winning streak. The team had already won the first two games of the season, and adding another win—especially one that was against Shawnee—would be something William McKinley High School hadn't done in almost twenty years. She knew everyone was hoping that this win would give them the confidence and strength to beat their rivals, Carmel High, in two weeks. That game was their homecoming game, so another win would be extraordinary.

"You know, the more you eat alone out here the more people are going to think you're crazy," Puck's voice called up to her from the bottom of the bleachers.

She hadn't seen him, or heard him, which was shocking considering the bleachers were old and made the loudest noises when even one person stepped onto them. Looking off to where his voice was coming from, Rachel glared at him, but quickly stopped the second she saw the large slushie cup in his hand.

"Don't throw that at me. Please, don't. I don't have any more clothes to change into, I already had to borrow these," Rachel said, referring to the outfit she was now wearing.

"Chill out, Bee, I'm not going to throw it at you. I actually drink these things some times."

Puck climbed the bleachers, eyeing her up and down with each step he took. He noticed the change in outfit from the last time he had seen her. Her blouse and skirt had been replaced by a pair of dark skinny jeans and a simple white top; she looked like any other normal teenage girl. When he finally reached her, he straddled the bench she was sitting on, facing her with a smile on his face.

"You don't have the right to call me that anymore." Rachel turned away from him, quickly packing her lunch up and putting it into her bag. She was trying desperately to avoid his eyes, fearing something inside her would betray her.

"What's your problem?" He asked while setting the cup in his hand down on the bench in front of them.

Rachel turned towards him, a look of shock crossing her face as their eyes met. Were they actually going to have a conversation? They hadn't said more than two or three words at a time to each other in almost five years.

"I don't have a problem." Rachel snapped at him before she could stop herself. This was the second time today she had let her emotions get the best of her, she didn't like it. For some reason she'll never be able to explain, whenever they were together she stopped being Rachel just like he stopped being Puck.

Rachel stood up to leave, taking a step down to the next bench so she wouldn't have to push pass him. The farther away she was from him the better, but he wasn't going to let that happen. Before Rachel could get even a few steps away from him, she felt Puck's large hand wrap around her small wrist, pulling her back towards him.

"Let go of me!" She yelled while trying to pull her hand away.

Puck shook his head, not exactly sure how to react to her behavior, some of which was humorous leaving the rest to be annoying and far too complicated for his liking.

"Shit, Bee, what the hell is with you? I remember a time when I had to pay you in chocolate to shut you up. Now you can't even talk to me, or even look at me."

"Things change, Puckerman. Do you get that or is it too difficult for your brain to understand? I don't talk to you, look at you, or acknowledge you at all because you're a horrible person who thinks it's hilarious to make fun of someone you use to be very close with."

"Oh please, Rachel, are we really going to do this? If you want to take a trip down memory lane I'm sure there are a few boxes down in my basement that can help you with that."

Rachel shook her head and felt her face began to burn red, she wasn't sure which emotion was causing it, there were far too many flowing through her body at that very moment. "No we're not going to do this. I refuse to sit here and reminisce about something good that you ruined."

"That I ruined? You're still blaming me for all the shit that happened? Maybe you should get off your little pedestal and take some credit. It wasn't just me that ruined this." Puck stopped, trying to gather all of his thoughts. He ran his fingers over the small strip of hair on his head and then began to gesture his free hand towards Rachel who stood there in front of him trying to hide the emotion on her face. "You ditched me. The second we got to this school you left me behind like I wasn't good enough anymore. All that mattered to you was your little glee club, the drama club and the fact that your fathers made more money the whole school combined. You ruined this, Rachel, not me."

She dropped her bag onto the bench she was standing on and pointed her finger at him, she was furious. "I _never_ claimed to be better than you, Noah, _ever_!"

"You didn't need to say it!"

"Because it wasn't true! The second we got here all you cared about was your reputation and how people saw you. You were so worried about covering up the things you were ashamed of that you didn't realize one of those things was me. I will not apologize for something I didn't do. I never changed, Noah, you did."

Puck finally got up from his place on the bench, knocking over his slushie and spilling it onto the ground below. He swore under his breath and stalked down the bleachers past Rachel, not understanding why he was so angry. When he reached the bottom he stopped and turned around to look at her, a question that had been on his mind since earlier that morning begging to come out.

"You talked to me," he said, resting his hands on the railing but not looking back at her. Suddenly he was calm, almost as if he had forgotten all the words that were just exchanged. "You never talk to me unless you absolutely have to. You never react to the things I say or the things I do, but this morning you did. What changed? What made today so special that you said something back?" _I've been dying to have you say something back. _There was a strange feeling burning the pit of his stomach. He wasn't sure what it was, but he was pretty sure Rachel had the answer.

Rachel stood there staring down at him, speechless. She tried to swallow the lump in her throat but it wasn't going anywhere.

"I don't know," Rachel whispered, looking away from him and down at her feet, she was never going to admit why she had the nerve to say something to him today. "I wish I could give you an answer, but I can't because I don't have one." For the first time, she didn't feel all that bad about lying.

Puck turned back around to see Rachel still staring at her feet and he was pretty sure he heard her sniffle. She reached up and wiped her eyes, never breaking her gaze at the ground below her.

"You're lying," he said simply. He knew it was true too. Rachel was very easy to read, at least for him anyway. Puck repeated himself. "You're lying. I know you are."

Rachel shook her head before looking up at him. Taking a deep breath, she began, "I miss you. For the last five years instead of letting you get to me I've shut you out because I didn't want to hurt. Then this week all I did was dream about you. I started unlocking my window just in case. I know it sounds crazy but for some reason I believed there was a chance I'd wake up to you falling onto my bedroom floor at one in the morning like I use too."

Puck nodded at her words, but wasn't really sure what to say. He wasn't expecting to hear all of that. He was expecting to hear something completely different, something along the lines her just wanting to hate him that much more.

"I miss you too," he said before walking off the bleachers and heading back towards the school before she had a chance to say anything else. He didn't want to hear anymore.

Rachel slowly sat on the bench below her. Resting her head in her hands, she began to cry.

/

When Puck got back into the school he head towards the bank of lockers near the science labs where his and the majority of the junior class' lockers were. Thankfully the hallways were empty, lunch was still going on meaning everyone was still in the cafeteria or wherever else they felt like spending the hour (which could not be in the hallways according to Principal Figgins).

After turning down the hallway he was heading for, Puck smiled at the sight before him, Tina was standing at her locker alone, bobbing her head up and down while softly singing to music only she could hear coming out of her headphones. This was just the person he needed right now.

"I need Rachel's cell number," Puck said as he leaned back against the locker next to Tina's and crossed his arms.

Tina ignored him, not being able to hear a word he was saying above the music she was listening to and she was too wrapped up in drawing something on a page of one of her notebooks. He watched her for a while, remembering how much Tina had loved to draw when they were younger, it was nice to see it hadn't changed, she had amazing talent. Cocking his head, Puck tried to make out what exactly it was she was drawing. It was a person, he could make out that much, and as he watched her for a while longer it became clear who she was drawing.

Puck reached over and pulled the headphones out of Tina's ears, finally catching her attention. She stopped singing and drawing, shooting him an evil glare as she did so.

"Why the hell are you drawing a picture of Mike?" Puck asked, grabbing the notebook out of Tina's hand to get a better look at it.

"It's none of your business," Tina said a very snotty tone while trying to grab her notebook back from him. She had no luck.

Puck continued to hold the notebook over his head, trying to control the laughter threatening to escape him as he watched Tina jump up and down to get it back out of the corner of his eye while still staring at the drawing. It was good, he wasn't going to lie. "Listen, I need a favor. I need Rachel's cell number." Puck repeated himself, finally focusing on the small Asian girl in front of him. His words caused Tina to stop, a confused look crossing her face.

"You want what? I'm not giving you Rachel's cell phone number. All you'll do is give it out to everyone and she'll have to get her number changed _again_."

He had hit a nerve—good. He knew Tina was very protective of Rachel, almost the same way a sibling was protective of their other siblings. Tina was the closest thing Rachel had to one since she was an only child.

"Look, I want it for myself, not to hand out to random people. Besides that wasn't me who did that last time, it was Karofsky. I—surprisingly-wasn't involved in that. I was home with pneumonia for that whole week." Puck had a fantastic memory—well he had a great memory when it came to Rachel, sports, cars, and beer—everything else was questionable.

Tina shook her head. "That doesn't change anything. What makes you think I'm going to give it to you? You're no one special. How can I trust you anyway? Who says you won't take it and harass her until she has to change her number again?"

Puck smirked at the attitude Tina was giving him. This was the Tina he had always loved, forceful with a sharp tongue, quickly turning into a mother bear whenever her friend's feelings were at stake.

"You're going to give me her number," Puck said, pulling a pen out of his pocket he began to write in the bottom corner of Tina's drawing, "Because you love me."

She rolled her eyes at him, again trying to reach for her notebook, but Puck moved away from her, keeping a nice distance between them.

"You're an asshole, Puckerman, an asshole. I don't like you and no matter what you say I'm not giving you her number. All you're going to do is bring her down."

Puck ignored everything she said and finished what he was writing. He took a few steps forward so that he was closer to Tina. "You might give it to me after you see this." Puck handed her notebook back, a smile playing on his lips as Tina read what he had written in the corner: _PB & the Changs, I miss us_. "You use to like me, a long time ago, remember? We all use to like each other. So can I have her number?"

She gazed at Puck's handwriting in the corner of the page as she felt memories of their childhood flooding into her head. His words were her breaking point, she had to give in. Turning to a blank page in her notebook, Tina quickly wrote down Rachel's number on it and handed it over to Puck. "Don't make me regret giving this to you," She told him. "If you hurt her, I'll kill you. I'll make sure it's slow and painful, and I can promise you no one will ever find your body."

/

During her last class of the day Rachel found herself glancing up at the clock every few minutes, trying to mentally will time to speed up. She needed this day to end. She needed to leave this school and go home, get away from everything and everyone—mostly just one person—but she needed to leave the rest of them behind as well. Ever since her argument—she's not even sure you could call it an argument, heated discussion maybe, but they weren't fighting about anything—with Puck during lunch, people had been staring at her even more so than usual; the attention was starting to make her believe that this was just another dream and a really sick one. This dream didn't want to end, it wanted her to suffer and suffer badly.

She couldn't focus on anything Mr. Schuester was saying so she let her mind wander. Day dreaming could help her right? Those are the dreams that can be controlled because you're awake, but every time she slipped away from the reality of her classroom she was in her mind went straight to him and how he had a starring role in her childhood. There was no memory she had that wasn't somehow touched by Noah Puckerman.

"Rachel?" She heard Mr. Schuester say her name, pulling her out of another memory.

She slowly lifted her head, realizing she had been staring at her unopened Spanish textbook the entire time. "Yes?"

Her teacher laughed at the dazed look on her face, it was a rare thing to catch Rachel off guard like this. "You can leave now, the bell rang."

Rachel looked around the room, noticing she was the only person still there. Feeling her face turn red with embarrassment, she quickly gathered her things and fled the classroom, leaving Mr. Schuester with a small smile.

While walking to her locker, Rachel continued to replay the day's events in her mind, a continuous stream of broken pictures that she still couldn't piece together. Her mind wouldn't allow her to think about anything else, the thing that were important to her like her upcoming dance recital, the fact that she still didn't have a duet partner for Broadway night, or the fact that glee club was still short two members, which they desperately needed in order to go to Sectionals this year.

Her vibrating phone pulled her out of another haze, startling her a little and causing her books to fall to the floor in front of her locker. Rachel pulled her phone out, believing at first it was Kurt, who was most likely impatiently waiting for her in the parking lot. When she looked down at the screen, however, it was not Kurt's name that appeared; instead it was a number she didn't recognize. Her natural instinct told her to erase it, but something more powerful told her to just check and see what it was.

_I still leave my window unlocked._

It took Rachel a moment to register that it was text from Puck; the thought of how he had gotten her number didn't even cross her mind. Before she knew what she was doing she was texting him back.

_We really need to have a civil conversation that doesn't result in either of us screaming at each other or with me ending up in tears._

She waited patiently for another text, kneeling on the ground to gather her books, but staying there, for some reason it made her feel a bit safer.

_Come to the football game tonight._

Rachel shook her head; the last place she wanted to be right now, surround by her moronic classmates screaming at a game she never really understood.

_No._

Standing up and about to place her phone back in her pocket, it vibrated one more time, and again she couldn't stop herself from reading it.

_Fine. I'll be falling into your bedroom after the game then._

Shaking her head, Rachel placed her phone back in her pocket, not sure if she should believe his words. He had always been good with him, the boy could weave a pretty little lie; he'd probably make a fine politician one day if he actually cared about school. She tried to push him from her mind, having better success this time, as she got the books she needed for the weekend from her locker.

"Umm…are you Rachel Berry?" A voice behind her asked, completely throwing her off guard and causing her to drop more of her books on the floor. Before she could pick them up the owner of the voice behind her was next to her, handing over two of her textbooks. "I'm sorry; I didn't mean to scare you."

Rachel studied the boy standing next to her with a goofy grin on his face. She had never seen him before, noting the slight accent in his voice, he had to be new—at least she hoped he was new, her classmates were very good at coming up with cruel jokes like this. For all she knew he could be someone she'd never seen before sent to make her life just a little more miserable today. She studied him more closely, trying to remember if she had ever seen him in this school before, noting that she was pretty sure she would have remembered a tall blonde with fairly large lips and a soft, friendly face. It took her a few minutes but she was fairly sure she had never seen him before.

"It's alright. I've had a rough day. Who are you?" Rachel asked while shutting her locker.

He nodded at her and smiled; putting her at even more ease than she was before. Most people didn't give her a smile like that right before they were about to humiliate her, she had a talent for being able to catch the devilish hint in their eyes.

"I'm Sam, Sam Evans," he told her while waving a little awkwardly. "Ms. Pillsbury told to come and find you. I'm new, just moved her from Tennessee, need to learn the ropes around here."

Rachel could barely contain her laughter. "And she sent you to me? Look if you want a decent reputation in this school, your first step is to stay as far away from me as possible."

Sam ignored most of what she said and continued. "She said we have a lot in common, parent and talent wise."

"Parent wise?" Rachel knew that could only mean one thing, but she had never known anyone in this town to be in the same parent situation that she was.

Reaching into his pocket, Sam pulled out his wallet, opening it up and showing Rachel the picture that sat nestled next to his driver's license. "These are my moms. I figured it would be easier learning around here knowing someone that understands where I'm come from." Rachel shook her head, understanding very much. "So you think you could show me around? I don't want to be lost on Monday."

Rachel gave him a warm smile, placing her backpack onto her shoulder. "Of course, let me just text my ride so he doesn't leave without me."

Pulling out her phone to text Kurt, Rachel saw another text from Puck waiting for her; she had been so thrown off by Sam she never even felt her phone go off.

_I miss you. I've wanted to say that for the longest time, but I was afraid you'd get pissed. I miss you, Rachel._


End file.
